The First Passover
1 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
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“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
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Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
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If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly.
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Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
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You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
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They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
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They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
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Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts.
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Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over.
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This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.
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On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
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The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
14 And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
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For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
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On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
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So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
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In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
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For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.
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You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
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Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
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Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
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When the LORD passes through to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway; so He will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
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And you are to keep this command as a permanent statute for you and your descendants.
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When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.
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When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
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you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
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And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.